Do I have a diverse bookshelf? Pt 2: Holidays & Festivals
Per the blog that we’re referring to, books about holidays and festivals introduce children to cultural heritage, religious customs and holidays, and important events in history. This is because the original post is about how parents might diversify the books to which their children are exposed. So it makes sense that having books about Ramadan or Dia de Los Muertos or Christmas should be considered.
However, as we get older, it’s rarer to encounter books so on the nose. So for our purposes, I’m going to focus on books that revolve around one or more of the items listed above.
Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut
Even though this book is about a time-traveling man who even spends some time in a space zoo, it is a fictional retelling of the author’s experience of the allied bombing of Dresden in WW2. Vonnegut even writes in Chapter 1 how he spends his whole life after the war working on his book about Dresden and failing. And how he considers even the magnificent Slaughterhouse-Five a failure, and we remain lucky to have it at all. Po-tweet-tweet!
Number the Stars by Lois Lowry
This is another book I read in elementary school, which I didn’t appreciate for it’s historical significance until later. Annemarie Johansen chronicles the takeover of Copenhagen by the Nazi regime in Denmark. Her family becomes embroiled in the escape of their Jewish neighbors. When I was young, it was a thrilling read about a heroine who saves her best friend. And as adult, I appreciate even more how much Lowry imparted about friendship, personal values, identity, love and grief.
In the Time of the Butterflies by Julia Alvarez
This is a fictional account of the Mirabal sisters—five resistance fighters against the Trujillo regime in the Dominican Republic during the mid-1900s who were martyred for their cause. Today, they’ve become feminist symbols of social justice. The book details how their lives led each woman to this dangerous path. It’s a very engrossing account; I’ve reread it often.
Searching for Tamsen Donner by Gabrielle Burton
The ill-fated Donner party is part of our pop culture lexicon; it’s pretty synonymous with cannibalism. However, this memoir/historical fiction really made me revisit all that I thought about pioneers especially the women and the feminist movement of the 1960s and 1970s. When I first read it, I thought it was fine. But even years later, I still recommend it to people. Burton makes visible the lives and work of countless women through her writerly search to uncover all she can about the life and tragic death of Tamsen.
Lakota Woman by Mary Crow Dog
When I was in college, I had to take a course called American Studies. I was confused by it because it just seemed like a literature class. But in hindsight, I now understand that our teacher wanted to expose us to different American voices. In that class, I read a memoir by an (ex)-gangster, a poetry hybrid by Leslie Marmom Silko, short stories about our American internment camps for the Japanese, and this memoir by Native-American activist Mary Crow Dog. In it, I learned about the forced reeducation of native children and her involvement in the 1960s-1970s resistance movements against the US government including their stand at Wounded Knee. It’s very powerful, and as I get older, it’s interesting to see these how tactics were used in the past (i.e. against the Irish by the British) in other countries (i.e. the aborigines of Australia even in the 1900s) and most likely will be used in the future.
However, as we get older, it’s rarer to encounter books so on the nose. So for our purposes, I’m going to focus on books that revolve around one or more of the items listed above.
Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut
Even though this book is about a time-traveling man who even spends some time in a space zoo, it is a fictional retelling of the author’s experience of the allied bombing of Dresden in WW2. Vonnegut even writes in Chapter 1 how he spends his whole life after the war working on his book about Dresden and failing. And how he considers even the magnificent Slaughterhouse-Five a failure, and we remain lucky to have it at all. Po-tweet-tweet!
Number the Stars by Lois Lowry
This is another book I read in elementary school, which I didn’t appreciate for it’s historical significance until later. Annemarie Johansen chronicles the takeover of Copenhagen by the Nazi regime in Denmark. Her family becomes embroiled in the escape of their Jewish neighbors. When I was young, it was a thrilling read about a heroine who saves her best friend. And as adult, I appreciate even more how much Lowry imparted about friendship, personal values, identity, love and grief.
In the Time of the Butterflies by Julia Alvarez
This is a fictional account of the Mirabal sisters—five resistance fighters against the Trujillo regime in the Dominican Republic during the mid-1900s who were martyred for their cause. Today, they’ve become feminist symbols of social justice. The book details how their lives led each woman to this dangerous path. It’s a very engrossing account; I’ve reread it often.
Searching for Tamsen Donner by Gabrielle Burton
The ill-fated Donner party is part of our pop culture lexicon; it’s pretty synonymous with cannibalism. However, this memoir/historical fiction really made me revisit all that I thought about pioneers especially the women and the feminist movement of the 1960s and 1970s. When I first read it, I thought it was fine. But even years later, I still recommend it to people. Burton makes visible the lives and work of countless women through her writerly search to uncover all she can about the life and tragic death of Tamsen.
Lakota Woman by Mary Crow Dog
When I was in college, I had to take a course called American Studies. I was confused by it because it just seemed like a literature class. But in hindsight, I now understand that our teacher wanted to expose us to different American voices. In that class, I read a memoir by an (ex)-gangster, a poetry hybrid by Leslie Marmom Silko, short stories about our American internment camps for the Japanese, and this memoir by Native-American activist Mary Crow Dog. In it, I learned about the forced reeducation of native children and her involvement in the 1960s-1970s resistance movements against the US government including their stand at Wounded Knee. It’s very powerful, and as I get older, it’s interesting to see these how tactics were used in the past (i.e. against the Irish by the British) in other countries (i.e. the aborigines of Australia even in the 1900s) and most likely will be used in the future.
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